Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

At the height of the Korean War in 1952, John won the Pulitzer Prize (and two other major awards) for "the sustained quality of his coverage of news of international affairs." The Pulitzer committee praised in particular John's prescient coverage of events that led President Truman to remove General Douglas MacArthur, from command in Korea. MacArthur was ready to expand the war into Communist China. Truman was not. Hightower's reporting reassured readers the country was not on the brink of World War III.

In 1938 John married Martha Nadine Joiner, of New York City. They were married forty one years and had three children.

The journalist's first Santa Fe connection was anthropologist Edward Hall, who got to know the Hightowers while working for the State Department in Washington in the 1950s. They became close friends. "John knew and was consulted by all the Secretaries of State and was trusted clear up to the president," Hall recalls. "He was unusually intelligent, perceptive and modest. He was conscientious and consistent. He had a tremendous reputation among news people for being completely trustworthy. He was highly dedicated to his work there wasn't anything else in his life, really."